Transportation of large cargo items is often open and not contained in a container. Large cargo items are often secured onto a flatbed of a vehicle using straps. Each strap is affixed at one end and adjustable on the other end. For example, on the adjustable end, the strap may be allowed to extend to sufficiently surround the large item and then be tightened to hold the large item against the flatbed to secure the large item.
There are many mechanisms to store, deploy, and tighten a strap. One of the popular devices is a weld-on winch that has a ratchet mechanism that includes a ratchet and a cam. The weld-on winch stores a roll of strap around its axis of rotation. When the cam is disengaged from the ratchet, a free end of the strap can be pulled to surround the cargo item. After sufficient length of the strap is pulled to surround the cargo item, the free end is then affixed to a point of attachment of the flatbed, such as by using a metal hook. The cam is reengaged to the ratchet to prevent the strap from further extending from the winch, and any loose portion of the strap will be rewound into the winch. The deployed strap will then be tightened to secure the cargo item. When the cargo item is to be removed from the flatbed, the cam is again disengaged from the ratchet to loosen the strap. The loose end of the strap is freed from the point of attachment and the strap is rewound onto the winch.
Rewinding the strap onto the winch is often a manual operation and time consuming, especially when there are many winches for one flatbed to provide different points of fixations. Winch bars for tightening the straps are designed to provide a long arm that enables an application of sufficient torque for tightening the straps and thus not suitable for fast rewind. Directly rewinding by hand is tiring and slow.